Meet the all-star team of lawyers Robert Mueller has assembled for the Trump-Russia investigation

As the investigation into
the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia gains traction,
special counsel Robert Mueller has begun quietly assembling a
formidable team of top lawyers and investigators.

Mueller has so far hired 16 people and intends to bring on more,
his spokesman Peter Carr told
The New York Times.

Only a handful have been named publicly so far, but legal experts
and fellow lawyers who have spoken to media in recent days lauded
the new hires as a powerhouse team of experienced professionals
with sterling credentials who rank among the best in their field.

"That is a great, great team of complete professionals," Kenneth
Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated President
Bill Clinton, told
ABC News.

The members of Mueller's team who've been named have a cumulative
37 years of experience at the FBI and 85 years at the Department
of Justice,
The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Yet despite the lawyers' resumes and reputations, several members
of the team have come under fire for their previous donations to
Democrats, prompting some critics to cry foul on the
investigation and urge Trump to fire Mueller.

Trump himself has even weighed in:

"You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American
political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people!"
Trump said Thursday on Twitter.

Here are some of Mueller's new hires:

Michael Dreeben

source

Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Dreeben, the deputy solicitor general overseeing the Department
of Justice's criminal docket, is widely regarded as one of the
top criminal law experts in the federal government. He will work
for Mueller on the investigation part-time as he juggles the
DOJ's criminal appellate cases.

Dreeben is best known for having argued
more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court - a feat that
fewer than 10 other attorneys have accomplished in the court's
history. Peers say his hiring reveals how seriously Mueller is
taking the investigation, and how wide-ranging it ultimately
could be.

"That Mueller has sought his assistance attests both to the
seriousness of his effort and the depth of the intellectual bench
he is building," Paul Rosenzweig, a former Homeland Security
official and Whitewater investigator, wrote on the
Lawfare blog.

Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New
York who was recently fired by Trump, called Dreeben one of the
DOJ's top legal and appellate minds in modern times:

More importantly, Michael Dreeben is careful, meticulous, non-partisan, and fair-minded. His loyalty is to the Constitution alone. https://t.co/9a7jwHVH1K

Beyond possessing an "encyclopedic" knowledge of criminal law,
lawyers who have worked with Dreeben say he also has a gift for
anticipating questions his arguments will likely prompt, allowing
him to prepare answers accordingly.

"He answers [questions] directly. He answers them completely. And
he answers them exquisitely attuned to the concerns that
motivated them," Kannon Shanmugam, a partner at the law firm
Williams & Connolly who worked with Dreeben at the solicitor
general's office, told the Law360 last year.

Andrew Weissmann

source

Associated Press/Pat Sullivan

Weissmann joined Mueller's team after taking a leave of absence
from his current job leading the DOJ's criminal fraud unit. He
formerly served as general counsel to the FBI under Mueller's
leadership.

Weissman also headed up the Enron Task Force between 2002 and
2005, for which he oversaw the prosecutions of 34 people
connected to the collapsed energy company, including chairman
Kenneth Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

He spent 15 years as a federal prosecutor in the eastern district
of New York, where he specialized in prosecuting mafia members
and bosses from the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese families.

"As a fraud and foreign bribery expert, he knows how to follow
the money. Who knows what they will find, but if there is
something to be found, he will find it," Emily Pierce, a former
DOJ spokeswoman under the Obama administration, told
Politico.

Weissman is one of several attorneys in Mueller's team that has
donated to Democrats, although he does not appear to have donated
in the 2016 election. He gave $2,300 to President Barack Obama's
2008 campaign, and $2,000 to the Democratic National Committee in
2006, according to CNN's review of FEC records.

Jeannie Rhee

Rhee is one of several attorneys to resign from the WilmerHale
law firm to join Mueller's investigation.

She also has two years of DOJ experience, serving as deputy
assistant attorney general under former Attorney General Eric
Holder. She advised Holder and Obama administration officials on
criminal law issues, as well as criminal procedure and executive
issues, according to her biography on
WilmerHale's website.

As many critics of Mueller's investigation have pointed out, Rhee
represented Hillary Clinton in a 2015 lawsuit that sought access
to her private emails. She also represented the Clinton
Foundation in a 2015 racketeering lawsuit.

Rhee is also one of the members of Mueller's team under scrutiny
for her political donations, and has doled out more than $16,000
to Democrats since 2008,
CNN reported. She maxed out her donations both in 2015 and
2016 to Clinton's presidential campaign, giving a total of
$5,400.

James Quarles

Quarles is another of Mueller's former WilmerHale colleagues, who
left the firm to join the special counsel investigation.

Quarles is a well-respected, longtime litigator who served as an
assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation early
in his career - experience that gives him a significant edge in
the Trump-Russia probe, according to colleagues.

"There is nothing comparable to the kind of pressure and
obligation that this kind of job puts on your shoulders," Richard
Ben-Veniste, one of Watergate's special prosecutors,
told CNN.

"Having been there before gives [Quarles] the confidence to know
how to do it and how to do it right."

Quarles is also being scrutinized for
donating almost $33,000 to politicians in past years.
Although most of the donations went to Democrats - including
Obama and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns - FEC records
show he has also donated small amounts to Republicans such as
Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz.

Aaron Zebley

source

Associated Press/Jeff Chiu

Zebley is a longtime FBI staffer who spent years in the
counterterrorism division as a special agent before becoming the
agency's chief of staff under Mueller's leadership.

Between FBI stints, Zebley served as assistant US attorney in the
national security and terrorism unit. He then moved to the DOJ's
national security division before eventually joining the
WilmerHale firm in 2014. He, like Quarles and Rhee, left his
job at the firm to work on Mueller's investigation.

Zebley's early work at the FBI consisted of grueling, complicated
investigations into terrorist groups like Al Qaeda - even before
9/11 propelled the organization into infamy. Yet in recent years
at WilmerHale, his focus has turned to cybersecurity.

A recent profile in
Wired called Zebley a "dogged FBI agent turned prosecutor
turned confidant," noting that his tenacity, history of working
alongside Mueller, and globetrotting, investigatory experience
will be crucial assets moving into the Trump-Russia probe.

Greg Andres

Greg Andres joined the all-star team on August 1, according to
Reuters.

Andres spent two years at the US Department of Justice from
2010-2012, and is now the 16th lawyer on Mueller's roster. During
his time at the Justice Department, Andres oversaw the fraud unit
as deputy assistant attorney general and managed a program
targeting illegal foreign bribery. He oversaw the prosecution of
Robert Allen Stanford for operating an $8 billion Ponzi scheme.

Most recently, Andres practices white-collar criminal defense
with David Polk & Wardwell, a New York based law firm,
Reuters reported.

Before his stint in the DOJ, Andres spent a decade as a federal
prosecutor in Brooklyn, and served as the chief of the US
attorney office's criminal division, Reuters reported. Andres
helped bust members of the Bonnano organized crime family. One of
the family members was accused of plotting to have him killed.